It's a Mad Tea Party { & a discount code }

After reading about Felicity's little mad tea party my Niece wanted the Mad Hatter to throw a tea party for her.  

So on her birthday the Mad Hatter and I got together in the woods and threw together a party in her honor.

The girls enjoyed tea and sweet treats.  They played croquet and checkers, then ran around the woods in search of that elusive Mad Hatter.

Dogs were welcome at the party too, as long as they behaved!

I made the princess a crown and the Mad Hatter left a little note filled with tiny trinkets.

I'm so in love with paper doilies.  I've been finding so many uses for them lately, and on this day they were the perfect thing to fancy up some simple plastic plates. 

There was a scrumptious Hello Kitty cake that was as delicious as it was cute.

There were photos displayed of the princess throughout her life.

Felicity enjoyed having the games all to herself while the big girls were running around the woods....

A lace tablecloth hanging at the back of the tent with a clock was the perfect finishing touch....

Despite lots of time spent running through the woods, the little girls never did manage to find that crazy Mad Hatter.

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On another note, I have a few new things in my shop....

A Pink Lace & Feather Hair Clip

Hot Pink & Zebra Beanie Hat

Vintage Feather & Fabric Headband

The final thing I have is a little discount code for you!

Use discount code "TeaParty" to get 35% off and a free hair bow at my shop: www.InspiredByFelicity.com

This will be valid all week!

"An Affair of the Heart" { My Gypsy Booth }

Sorry I've been absent from blog land lately.  I have been crazy busy with "life".  

A week ago I was a vendor at "An Affair of the Heart" in Tulsa, OK.  It is one of the largest shows of its kind in the Nation.  It was crazy huge and intimidating, yet wonderful at the same time!

I do craft shows regularly, but I've never participated in one this large.

On set-up day, as we passed all the other awesome booths on our way to find my spot, my husband said, "Wow, these people came prepared to sale some stuff!"   

They had display set-ups that cost thousands of dollars.  

Their booths all looked like perfectly manicured little stores.  

The parking lot was filled with fancy cargo trailers with logos and brand names painted on them.  License plates from states all over the midwest.

....and there we were, with our pick-up truck loaded down with a bunch of this and that handmade display pieces and things taken from my home and borrowed from others!

Just looking at their booths made me feel like I was going to have a panic attack.

My breathing got heavier, my heart was racing and I didn't want to pull out my display for fear of being embarrassed to have my home-made inexpensive set-up being surrounded by all these "professionals".

Finally I just told myself, "Get over it! Stop comparing yourself to everyone else and get to work!"

My wonderful husband and even Felicity helped me put everything together.

As my booth came together piece by piece I was proud of it.  It was not as fancy and elaborate as most of the others, but it was special, it was unique and most of all, it was ME and represented my product.

We hung fabric all around the sides of my booth.  My husband referred to it as the "Gypsy" booth surrounded by uptight corporate stores.  

The show ended up being a success and I met lots of wonderful people.  But most of all I think I learned a valuable lesson about insecurities and comparing yourself to others.  

My booth was not like the others, but it was me and it represented my product well and that's all I needed to do!

Here are a couple pictures of the show borrowed from the official AAOTH website.

That's it for now.  I have a cranky little girl that has been sitting in my lap while I write this and I need to go give her some attention!  Have a wonderful week.

-pamela

My Pinterest Baking Failure

I really suck at baking, like really bad.  The last three times I've tried to make basic chocolate chip cookies not a single one has turned out right, so I don't know what I was thinking when I agreed to try to make these fancy Salted Caramel Apple Cider Cupcakes with my sister.

The original recipe is from Something Swanky

The actual cupcake muffins came out okay.  The real problem we had was with the icing.

The recipe says to cream butter and shortening together then add powdered sugar and melted caramel.  She warns in the recipe that blending the caramel into the icing can be "tricky".  This should have been our first hint that we would screw it up.

The melted caramel was so hot that it was melting the butter as we tried to add it to the butter and shortening, (the recipe says that means your caramel is too hot).  

So we waited a bit for the caramel to cool down.  But then when we tried to add it to the butter/shortening combo, instead of blending in, the mixer was just dicing it into sticky chunks.  

So then we heated it more and added a dab of milk as it cooled to keep it creamier and tried adding it to the butter/shortening combo again.

This time the caramel blended but the longer we beat the butter/shortening, sugar & caramel mixture, it looked less and less like icing.  It became chunky and weird instead.  

We went ahead and tried to put the chunky weird textured "icing" into the fancy icing thing (don't know what it's called) and tried to pipe it onto the cupcakes.  

It didn't go so well because the texture of it just didn't work for pipping and little chunks of caramel kept getting stuck in the tip.  So this is what we ended up with....

....as opposed to the beautiful cupcakes Something Swanky ended up with.

So what did I learn from this?

If you can't even bake basic chocolate chip cookies, do not attempt fancy cupcakes! 

My sister said she did see a caramel syrup (like you might put on ice-cream) and wondered if that would have worked better for us than trying to use the real melted caramel.  I don't know.

Have you had any baking failures lately?  Please tell me I'm not the only one.

Fall & Thanksgiving Decor at my House

Okay, I know I've been kind of absent on the blog lately.  I am pretty overwhelmed right now getting ready for the "An Affair of the Heart" show in Tulsa, OK this month.  It is one of the biggest shows in the nation and I've been working day and night to get prepared.  But of course I've still had to find time to keep the house looking fresh and add a bit of Fall decor.  Working on the house is a nice break from "work" every now and then.

I love gathering things from the outdoors to bring in.  It's a combination of the fact that I like the natural look and that I'm frugal and love FREE home decor!

I have tons and tons of scrapbook paper, so I figured I should put some of it to use in the house, since I never have time to scrapbook....

Felicity and I love gathering the acorns and pecans in the yard.  Felicity is so into it now that whenever she goes outside she constantly looks at the ground watching for them, it's so cute.

Also, I've added a couple new things to the shop.

Vintage Rolled Flower Headband

Custom Color Satin Flower Clips

Well, Felicity is wanting to go outside and play so we are heading outside for a while before I have to get down work today!